I predict homes like these will be the way of the future as Gen X and Gen Y realize the incredible debt burden they naively voted upon themselves following the self-sabotaging advice their Baby Boomer teachers gave them.
There is good news, however.
How, oh how, will we ever raise the funds to pay for Baby Boomer retirement plans and health care when Gen X'ers, Y'ers, and Millineals, only need to work up $22,000 a year to pay for homes like these?
Oh, and if savvy youth don't have kids (as they obviously cannot live in such small quarters), will you rely on future immigrants from the non-Western-Civilization world to work up the economic productivity to pay for your entitlements?
Heh heh. You hippie AARP boomers, you idiots enjoy that decline. You brought it on yourselves and there's nobody more deserving.
24 comments:
Perhaps this is the start of a "housing size correction". If you look at houses built in the 1950s they are down right miniscule compared to today's homes. Granted, they are not micro homes, but for families living in them it was not at all uncommon for siblings to share a bedroom.
Contrast that to today where most McMansions actually seem to be small apartment buildings where each child has not only their own bedroom but their own bathroom as well.
Personally I would rather have a small house on a big lot than a house that comes within the minimum code distance of the lot line on all four sides.
Where I come from, that's called a trailer park. Just ask Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles.
Hey looks pretty cool to me! Most guys, I think, can pretty much live anywhere. But I'm surprised a woman would choose that. I'm married, unfortunately, so such a place is impractical for me.
I'm a boomer, but still one of the producers. I'll probably end up living in something like that after the government confiscates my savings to pay off the freeloading, non-producing boomers, which probably outnumber the former.
It is pretty amazing how many events are coming together. A fourth turning for sure. Minimalism will be the thing in future, first mainly by choice or circumstances and then in the future thrust upon everyone by circumstances. MGTOWs are leading the way.
I am what I think one of those rare red pill boomers. Hate the AARP. The bastards will do anything to screw young people and then screwed both young and their members over ObummerCare. Realize that retirement was recent development that was only possible due to circumstances (longer life, booming economy, lack of government debt). Working until you die was the norm and it looks like it will revert back to the norm.
I realize that saving for retirement is hopeless as bank bail-ins, forced conversion of pension funds, monetary dilution policies will decimate what you will have saved up. Only thing left is to prepare the best you can and get in the best health possible.
Not to mention that it dovetails in with millenials love of the environment and all things small-carbon-footprint.
These will be huge. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Now would be a good time to reupload your talk on Crusaderism in one piece, with the whole duck thing going on, it would even make for a good youtube video, your take on Phil the duck-man.
p.s. for ten grand I'd rather get a kick-ass trailer, and take the mobility on top!
Max Keiser was just talking about Gen X and Gen Y living in their parents basements while they are out traveling the world... hilarious.
In other words, a single wide trailer with a SWPL facade.
I like it Captain!
(Here's a woman who obviously "liked the maths"!
But there is another way.
Buy a foreclosure in a (previously) hot area like I did here in Phoenix.
In 2009-201 when the housing market crashed here condos routinely lost 80+% of their value.
I picked up my 780sf + 162 sf back patio + 50+ sf front patio area (+ a nice big shade orange tree) for $30k cash. And it's in a decent neighborhood with eye shot of a very nice neighborhood.
Looks more like a dolled up mini-trailer. I'd just live in a trailer. Put some flamingos in the front yard, sit in a lawn chair, smoke my pall mall reds and finish off schlitz after schlitz after schlitz. I'll hand out generic halloween candy for the kids tho.
The future you predict is predicated on the notion that the government continues to borrow money from the Federal Reserve, a situation that daily becomes less tenable. As you have said yourself, the truest measure of an economy is the capacity for production of goods and services; such capacity is present in the US and is crippled by the monetary policies of virtually every government the country has had. I see the day when such insanity stops and the government begins, as it did during the Civil War, to print its own money; the debt disappears and the nation never again becomes enslaved by private lenders.
They've been doing this for a while in Sweden:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friggebod
They're available typically between 10 and 20 square metres, which puts this design more or less in the middle.
You can even find an entire community of these as vacation homes:
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulthstuga
I used to see some of these small homes along the banks of the Årstaviken in Stockholm many years ago ...
Oh yea and the prop taxes are $370 a year on my place too!
Don't get too excited. The system is always looking for a way to force you to pay the master, whether you want to or not.
http://blogs.ajc.com/news-to-me/2013/12/18/woman-living-off-the-grid-faces-eviction/
I grew up in a trailer which was 12 feet by 50 feet. Aside from being called " trailer trash" by the locals living in houses, it worked out pretty well. Lot rent in 1965 was 35 dollars a month! Even correcting for inflation that was a cheap way to live.
Cappy, you've got to STOP calling social security an entitlement for all Boomers. I still work and have done so for 35 years. Social security has been taken from every fucking paycheck. Getting some back is NOT an entitlement to me, although I doubt I'll see any of it anyway.
You want to talk about entitlements, let's point a finger at the pukes you named in the post. They all think that they're entitled to a great paying job, full of perks and such without doing a goddamned thing to prove their worth.
Grow up and grow a pair!!
did you what they are doing in the UK ? people are living in metal storage trailers becuase they cant afford anything else.
i, for one; am determined to sit on the sidelines, smoking cigars, drinking beer and laughing my ass off from my lakeside mansion as unlike most everyone that doesnt think past theyre next paycheck, i've been putting money away by the shovelfull and i know how to make money on the way up and the way down.
Captain, "The Future is Now!" A few in our social circle already have "tiny houses" as converted rv's (couples) or live in a converted van (a single man). We are making plans to build our own tiny home.
Those who want to opt out of the housing racket are not being left alone to "enjoy the decline" as the unmarried pregnant woman in this article is. The one very tangible downside to tiny house living is evading strict housing codes. Bankers must churn mortgages! Insurance companies must insure huge houses or they don't make (enough) money! As people reject or eject from 30 year mortgages there will be more stringent code enforcement. Plan accordingly.
Already due to municipal minimum square footage requirements, the only tiny house option is to build on a trailer. If you want or have a child, and the wrong person finds out you live in a (heated, clean, in a safe neighborhood) trailer DCFS will be VERY interested in why you are living in "substandard housing". As opposed to living in Reaver space in a rented or mortgaged home.
No one "lives" in their small homes here. For plausible deniability they are "home sharing" (roommates) in the house and using the trailer to "recreate". For example as a yoga space or artists studio. For those who (don't) live in vans or covered pickups, they rent a heated garage space as "parking". You can fly under the radar as long as the immediate neighbors are clueless or live and let live.
Those we know enjoying tiny living have a lot more disposable income than we do. Wages and housing costs are so wonky it isn't easy to live in a safe area close to employment the traditional way. There are a lot more single men than couples living this way (in our urban area, YMMV).
We (married, one child, no pets) are planning our "tiny house" as a way to avoid punitive property taxes. We pay for a private education. Police officially will not respond to the majority of 911 calls. We have no reason to pay exorbitant property taxes and desperately need to escape the taxes "built into" our rent to reclaim some of my Husband's income. Buying is a suckers bet where we live due to ever increasing taxes and shifting neighborhood stability.
We currently pay $1025 a month plus all utilities for 625 sq ft. 4 rooms- 2 small bedrooms, living room, galley kitchen with a breakfast bar to eat at, and a bathroom in a decent neighborhood. We are certain we could save a lot of money by "going small" (er, smaller than 625 sq ft.) and renting a backyard space for approx $500 per month (includes electricity) from one of several homeowners we know. A well built tiny home also provides mobility if the area we live in begins to suffer regular raids by Reavers or if employment prospects for us my Husband are no longer available in our geographic area.
We are buying & collecting salvage building materials now. We hope to begin building this spring at my parents property on weekends. However, even if we finish quickly, we will wait to move to our very own Firefly-class transport ship until the mini human is a bit older to avoid potential complications with government do gooders.
We will join you in enjoying the decline - in our own different way! Cheers!
I still work and have done so for 35 years. Social security has been taken from every fucking paycheck. Getting some back is NOT an entitlement to me.
True, but its not the whole story. The deduction from your paycheck for Social Security does not go into a pension fund that is invested so that you can start receiving it upon retirement age. Rather, it is a direct transfer of money from your pay check directly to CURRENT SS recipients. In other words, Social Security is actually run like a ponzi scheme. There were people who recieved social security payments in the 1930's and 1940's who never paid into the system to begin with! This is the very definition of a ponzi scheme.
The Captain is right to call it an entitlement. All ponzi schemes collapse sooner or later. What this means for you, I, and probably everyone else reading this blog is that all of us will be left holding the bag. That's the way ponzi schemes collapse.
The worst part about it is that this is one ponzi scheme that one is legally required to participate in, which means that government, in general, is nothing more than a criminal enterprise.
My parents were raised in large families in 800 square foot bungalows. Somehow everyone made it. I cannot fathom a house so big you need to call someone on the cell phone to get them to the kitchen for breakfast.
Not all small houses are mobile. A lot of the Katrina house plans are for permanent bases.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tiny+houses+katrina&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=1636C732C68B925220AC1551B55D267F9BD3FF0E&selectedIndex=14
Surf "cargo container home" They stack and can look pretty snazzy if you work at it.
I don't see where's the problem, Captain.
Small houses are very easy to maintain, renovate and alter. They cost a lot less in heating and air conditionning, electricity etc.
A lot less tax burden and you could always install yourself on a large land and build one small house after the other to eventually end up with something big made of small individual parts.
Large houses were mostly a proxy to stay away from shitty people. When the feds broke up the housing projects and instituted section 8 it became import to acquire housing that more expensive that what section 8 will pay thus the large houses.
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